Kyri was, in some ways, in more peril than she had ever been...   -----     Chapter 25. Arbiter Kelsley wavered on his feet; Tobimar and Discoverer (previously Seeker) Reed caught his elbows, helped him to sit down. Kyri looked out of the holy circle, and Tobimar felt a phantom pain in his chest as he saw her understanding that even this had failed. "Nothing at all, Arbiter?" The priest of Myrionar shook his head reluctantly. "I can injure her easily enough, Balance save me. But to break that curse lies beyond [ Continue reading... ]

Well, we'd left off with Kyri in a rather bad spot...   -----     Chapter 22. "This is going to look so stupid, Poplock," Tobimar said, settling his swords back into place. "We –" "I'll take all the blame if it looks stupid. I know that it seemed like we pretty much settled it just now, but there's still that chance left, and can we afford it if you're wrong? We can take a little embarrassment, even getting Kyri mad at us, but…" "Fine, fine. You're right. You generally have been. I just hope we're all [ Continue reading... ]

Tobimar and Poplock had decided that Rion had to be watched...   -----     Chapter 20      "You lost him? You?" Tobimar couldn't keep the incredulity from his voice. There was a part of him that felt almost betrayed, and he finally identified it as the same feeling he'd had the first time he realized his mother couldn't fix everything. Poplock had always been the one who got things done when other people couldn't. The diminuitive Toad couldn't meet his gaze. "Yeah. I lost him." "Where?" "He'd taken a walk [ Continue reading... ]

Having broken the Watchland's enchantment, the question is what to do next...     ----     Chapter 18.      Tobimar watched as Xavier and Rion sparred. Rion wielded what Tobimar thought of as an Odinsyrnen sword and some others called a knight's weapon – a fairly long one-handed blade, double-fullered along most of its length, with a dragon-motif hilt – and a small shield, slightly larger than a buckler, and wore chain armor with some plate elements. Xavier, of course, wore no apparent armor and used two [ Continue reading... ]

Poplock had made a welcome discovery in the last chapter...     -------     Chapter 14.      Once more, Tobimar found himself hiding in shadows, watching an inn. A misty, warm drizzle of rain wet his hair and dripped from the eaves above. Poplock was on his shoulder as they stared at the Balanced Meal from the darkness of a narrow alley between a clothier and a farrier's stables across from the main inn of Evanwyl proper. "This is going to be difficult," he murmured. "Why in Blackwart's name aren't they [ Continue reading... ]

They had made a hideous discovery...   ------     Chapter 5.      "It makes all too much sense," Tobimar said quietly. He saw Kyri nod, still pale under her dark skin. Rion had nearly collapsed after that last revelation, and it was clear that he needed rest badly. Now he and Kyri stood at the edge of Valatar, and he rested a hand on her shoulder. She started at that, then nodded again. "Of course. And fits perfectly with that sensation I had around him – the one that first led me to be suspicious of the Unity [ Continue reading... ]